Designer Update #3 - New transformation, confusing tiles and grandpa`s gameover style

After a weekend of pure holiday goodness, I had some quite interesting ideas for RAAR.
Today I tried to convert some of these ideas into real gameplay.

First, there is a new transformation for Kamui. This one is different than the other two because Kamui is not getting big and slow. Instead he is becoming really fast and invincible in his new form.
You may compare it to Super Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 if you want to.
This new power up is becoming real fun if you battle big hordes of enemies.

After that, I drew some tiles for the second level, the graveyard. Unfortunately, they look really confusing and not good at all because they won`t work together as I wanted them to do. I will redraw/recolor most of them sometime to see if my graveyard will be able to look a little bit more scary.

The last one is another power up. Nothing new here if you remember the "slimearmy" from the original version. An army of slimes ran down the screen from top to bottom. I did not changed the way this power up works, however I  did change the way it looks. It is now a little bit more...up to date, I think.

Well, that`s it for this time. Maybe next time I will be able to say a little bit more about that alpha demo.

sincerely,
Marcus

Designer Update #2 - Official Name, Logo and an Alphademo?

So, after another successful night of work I can say that the gameplay is getting more and more enjoyable.
I have now implemented the first boss and also one new power up.

While the power up is nothing really special, just a normale HP restorer, the Boss is in fact something new and interesting in the RAA series. Some of you may remember that there was in fact one boss in but it was more or less just a enemyspawner without anything special to itself.
This time there will be a few more bosses and they will have some special abilities. This first one e.g. is able to perform a fireattack that shoots fireprojectiles in all four directions and is really deadly to the player`s hero. Also he is able to teleport himself all around the map to annoy you.
At last he can summon some enemies by himself, just like the final boss in the original version did.
Some of you XBLIG Gamers may remember him:

This time, however he has a different role to play. More infos on the plot are coming at a later date.

On another note, I finally decided what name this remake will get. Since it would be really confusing to simply call it Retro Arcade Adventure I decided to add something that shows it`s remake status.
So the finalname for the Remake is:

Yep, Retro Arcade Adventure Remade or simply RAAR. Sounds fancy doesn`t it? As you can see we also got a first(and probably final) logo design.

One last thing to talk about is the fact that I realized how hard it is to show you the new gameplay of RAAR, since gameplay is not really a thing you can transfer to the player by screenshots or footage. I am currently thinking about releasing an Alphademo with the first level and boss just to show you guys how the new version plays and feels. On the other hand, it would be a good way to alphatest and maybe change some things easily since it is all still in the very early alphastate.

This is not yet a final decision but it would help if you let me know if you would be interested in testing the game at this early state?

Well, that`s all for this time, I hope you enjoy this look behind the scenes and will enjoy the final game.

Marcus

Designer Update #1 - RAA Remake

Today, after working on RAA, I stumbled upon a video series on Youtube about someone who is developing his very own game, while watching episode after episode I realized that it can be really interesting to see the evolution of a game documented like this.
So I decided to start a little update series myself with regular WIP footage and some more or less interesting designdocument snippets.

To get Things starting, I have a picture for you guys:

What you see here is actually the complete paperwork for RAA in it`s original XBLIG version. Yep, that`s all, not much right?

With it`s remake, I thought it would be of more use to go a little bit more into detail. First of all I did a short compilation of key visuals regarding the plot of the game. They are of no use at all if you don`t know the plot for yourself, but still it is somewhat spoilerish so you may want to look away now:

 It actually helps me to not loose the focus of the game this time around.
As one last snippet, I have some WIP footage for you to see how the game looks at the moment. It was poorly recorder with a demo of fraps but at least it worked this time around:

 

 And now I will continue my work on that remake and hope to get you guys something new to show in the near future.

Marcus

First Retro Arcade Adventure Remake Screenshot

As promised, here it is, a first WIP screenshot of Retro Arcade Adventure`s remake for PC:

More screenshots and informations coming soon. : )

Back to work...

Retro Arcade Adventure(PC) - A complete remake!

Good evenig to you all,

As I am working on the PC Port of Retro Arcade Adventure at the moment, I thought it would be a good idea to clarify the fact that this version of the game will be a complete remake.

Don`t expect fancy HD graphics or anything like that, but there are a lot of changes since the XBLIG version. As you may remember, the XBLIG version had some nasty loading screens. That was basically because my code just sucked and did not managed the given resources that well. This, and the enourmes bytesize let me to the decision of remaking the game`s code completely.

I also wasn`t all that satisfied anymore with a lot of other things in the game. When a nice little idea how to slightly improve the swordfighting hit me, I decided to completely remake the entire game.

So what can you expect from the PC Port? A lot of new stuff! New Gameplay! New Graphics! New Power Ups! New Story!

It will still be the same basic concept, things like the king or the dragon are still in there, but they are all improved while others are completely changed.

If you are not sure what to think of all this at the moment, just wait till I post the first screenshot(tomorrow!), maybe then you will understand why I am so excited to change so much.

For now, let me show you the evolution of Kamui from XBLIG to PC:

 
I hope you will enjoy the final release as much as I enjoy making it. There is no set releasedate yet but my goal is still, to release it this year in december.


Greetings,
Marcus

Retro Arcade Adventure - PC Port

Hello there,
As you may know by now, if you follow me on Twitter, things didn't turn out to be all that great for "A Forest Life". As I made good progress in the original concept, I realized that it was simply not as fun as I first thought it would be.

Since I can`t release a game that is not as fun as I want it to be and still consider myself a Gamedesigner I decided to let it rest for a few months and redesign parts of the original concept until it is a game I would proudly call my own.

As you remember I couldn't work on anything the past few months because I was as busy as...well someone who is really busy. So I can't just sit there and doing nothing but think about the concept. If you also remember the first Trailer of Retro Arcade Adventure, I promised to deliver the PC port later this year. If I want to keep that promise, I think that this is the right time to work on the PC Port.

So, that's it. My current situation explained. I can't give a specific date yet for when the PC Port of Retro Arcade Adventure will be released but I set the time around christmas as my personal goal since there is a lot to do(A lot of things need improvements in the original RAA).

I hope you weren't to excited for "A Forest Life" and still are able to look forward for Retro Arcade Adventure on your PC.

Yours sincerely,
Marcus

I Am Back In Action!

After a very long time of unproductivity, I can finally say that I am completely back in action and will continue my work on "A forest life". Gone are the months in which I could only design some small little minigames in html5(however I will still make those because it is a lot of fun).

 This morning I went to my local supermarket and bought me some energy drinks, grabbed my design documents and copied all the important files to my laptop, so I can work everywhere I want.

It is all set up again and I am very excited to get back into development. My first task will likely be to rename the game since "A forest life" is not quite the interesting title I wanted it to be.

That's it for now, expect more updates soon. I am going to make me a coffee and afterwards, I will rev up!

Marcus